A Bravo For Christmas

And he smiled that same slow, knowing smile he’d given her seventeen years ago right after he told her that someday she would say yes to him. “You look kind of flushed. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I am fine. You can go.”

He didn’t budge. “About the other day, I—”

“Oh, please.” She waved her hand so wildly, she almost hit her nose with it. “You know that was nothing.”

“No.” He said it way too softly. “I don’t know that, Ava. In fact, I’m thinking it was definitely something.”

“And I’m telling you it wasn’t and you should forget it.”

He leaned closer, bringing that scent of leather and wood shavings and something else, too, something wonderfully manly that she couldn’t quite name. “Forget it?” he spoke softly, almost a whisper, his breath warm across her cheek and his eyes like the sky when night comes on. “You offered to be naked. There’s no way I’m forgetting that.”

Her heart felt like it would explode from her chest and splatter all over the room. Her pulse pounded loud and hard in her ears. How could she be so over-the-top about this? You’d think she was fifteen again, the way she was behaving.

She needed to cut it the hell out right now, start acting like an adult, for crying out loud. Drawing her shoulders back, she stared up at him defiantly and reminded him in a calm, even tone, “Look. This is stupid. Plus, it’s all your fault. I mean, you’re the one who’s always flirting with me.”

“So are you telling me you finally decided to flirt back?”

“Darius. Please. Can’t we just forget what I said?”

“Are you kidding me? It’s branded in my brain.” He said that with real feeling—after which he grinned a slow, lopsided grin. “And we need to talk about it. In depth. At length.”

How did he make that sound so dirty? She glared. “No, we don’t.”

He kept right on grinning. “Yes, we—”

“Is this bathroom taken?” The voice of old Levi Kenwright, grandfather-in-law to Dare’s brother James, cut him off. The old man came toward them from the door to the hallway.

“All yours.” Ava flashed Levi a giant smile, zipped around the old fellow on the side away from Darius and escaped out the open bedroom door.

She joined the others in the great room. Clara poured her a nice glass of Riesling, and they toasted the season. Then Chloe took her aside. They firmed up the open house staging she would be dealing with tomorrow.

An hour into the party, she went upstairs to check on the girls, who had taken over a guest room. They’d gathered a number of chairs from other rooms and draped blankets between them. Ava heard them giggling together inside the makeshift fort.

“Anybody in here?”

“Just us!” Sylvie answered.

Ava got down on all fours and stuck her head under the blankets to find Sylvie, Annabelle and little Kiera sitting in a circle pretending to drink from empty pink plastic teacups.

“How’re you girls doing?”

“We’re having a tea party,” Sylvie replied.

“Ava!” cried Kiera gleefully. “Hi there!”

“Hi, Kiera.”

Kiera made lip-smacking sounds, so Ava leaned closer, and the little sweetie pressed her lips against her cheek.

“Would you like a cup of tea?” asked Annabelle sweetly.

“I would love one.” Ava crawled on in and joined their circle. Annabelle handed her a cup and a little plastic plate, and Ava proceeded to drink pretend tea and enjoy an imaginary cupcake. “Well,” she said, once she’d sipped and chewed for a couple of minutes. “That was delicious.” She pretended to blot her lips with an imaginary napkin. “And now, I must be on my way.” The fort was perfect for the three girls, but things got tight with a mom included.

“Bye-bye!” chirped Kiera brightly.

“Dinner soon,” Ava reminded them as she backed out the way she had come. “Don’t eat too many cupcakes.”

“Oh, Mom,” Sylvie scoffed. “They’re only ’maginary.”

“Well, all right then. Have as many as you like.” She emerged from the fort butt-first to find Darius leaning in the doorway to the upper hall.

Her heart did a silly forward roll, and her pulse went a little crazy. She shot to her feet. “This is getting ridiculous,” she muttered as she straightened her skirt and smoothed her sweater.

He didn’t say a word—probably because he knew if he spoke, the girls would hear him and demand that he crawl into their fort and have tea with them, too. Darius clearly had other plans. He stepped forward and grabbed her arm.

She should have jerked away, but she didn’t. It felt too delicious, his warm fingers pressing into her skin through her sweater, the little thrill of excitement skittering down the backs of her knees to have him so close, touching her. He pulled her from the room, and she went a lot more willingly than she should have.

“No,” he whispered for her ears alone once they were out in the upper hallway.

“No, what?”

“This isn’t ridiculous. This is fun.”

She almost giggled at that, which pretty much proved she was losing her mind.

“Come on,” he said.

“Where?”

“In here.” He ducked into the next bedroom, pulling her with him—and then shut the door. “Now. Where were we?”

She eased free of his grip and backed off a few paces. “I can’t believe I let you drag me in here.”

He folded those fine, hard arms across that broad chest and leaned back against the door. “Go out with me. Tomorrow night.”

“That is not going to happen.”

“Why not?”

“No dating. Not in this town. Not with our families.”

“Ava. What’s wrong with our families?”

She didn’t even want to go into it. But he just stood there blocking the door, waiting for an explanation. So she gave in and provided one. “They’re all up in my business, that’s what. I’ve been out twice with nice men in the five years since I moved back to town. The first date was with a perfectly pleasant software designer. Afterward, all three of my brothers got me aside and told me I could do better. They’re so overprotective they make me want to scream. Then a year ago, I tried again, with another Realtor who has his office in the same building as mine. Your sister Nell saw us together. Later, there was endless discussion of if we would go out again and wasn’t it great that I was finally seeing someone? That was when it came to me.”

“What?”